5 tips on stopping Internet hackers

Hackers who breached LivingSocial might have been aiming for personal information to sell to marketing companies.

Or it might have been a failed attempt to steal credit card information, said Graham Kuzia, program developer for digital forensics at Central Piedmont Community College’s American Academy of Applied Forensics.

Some hackers break into websites just to prove they can, but others are looking to make money, he said.

In any sentence, there is a 12 percent chance any letter will be an E, he said. That makes the vowel a pretty easy guess for hackers.

3. You’re No. 4

Likewise, the number one has a higher probability of being used than any other number, he said.

4. To be safe, alternate

Never use the same passwords for important things like bank accounts as you use for other logins, especially those that can easily be hacked, he said.

5. Switch it up

You should also change your passwords every 30 to 60 days, Kuzia said.

Background

More than 50 million people may have had information stolen after hackers broke into the LivingSocial website’s database. And that information could be sold to marketing companies overseas, according to Kuzia.

LivingSocial hasn’t said when the breach took place, citing an ongoing investigation. But an email distributed to the site’s users said it was recently.

The daily deals website sent an email over the weekend requiring members to change their passwords.

“The security of your information is our priority,” O’Shaughnessy said in the letter. “We are redoubling our efforts to prevent any issues in the future.”

And also beware …

In Gaston County, the most common online threats to personal information are scams sent through emails, said Detective Myron Shelor with the Gaston County Police Department.

“The most common is people in Russia wanting you to be an intermediary where you will have products shipped to you and they will ship them to Russia,” Shelor said. “They say they will pay you for them but never do.”

Or the scams are false advertising like job ads.

Other hoax emails purport to be from eBay, he said. The eBay scams will look official and tell the recipient that though they lost a recent bid on an auction, the winner defaulted, making the email recipient the actual winner.

Page 2 of 2 - Then they’ll ask for payment.

You can reach reporter Lauren Baheri at 704-869-1842 or at Twitter.com/lbaheri.